Finland Times

 

The Gemalto SIM cards used by mobile phone operators. Photo Lehtikuva.

All Finnish cell-phone operators use SIM cards of Gemalto, the encryption keys of which were reportedly stolen by American and British hackers.

 

Approximately 30-50 per cent of around three million Sonera customers use Gemalto cards while the number of customers of two other major cell-phone operators, Elisa and DNA, using Gemalto SIM could not be known immediately.

 

Sensing possible risks, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) said it will conduct an intensive investigation into this matter.

 

Stealing of SIM card encryption keys is a serious and worrying incident whose consequences cannot by fully ascertained due to a lack of detailed information, cyber security experts said.

 

The experts’ opinion came following a revelation that the United States and British hackers hacked into the internal computer network of Gemalto, the world’s largest manufacturer of SIM cards.

 

Earlier, an online newspaper, The Intercept, in a report said American and British spies hacked into the internal computer network of Gemalto and stolen encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cell-phone communications across the globe.

 

Gemalto Oy's office in Vantaa on Friday. Photo Lehtikuva.

Gemalto has not confirmed the report, but has promised to investigate into the allegations.

 

Antti Kiuru, head coordinator of the Cyber Security Centre of Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, said the situation will be investigated together with the mobile operators.

 

“If the encryption keys have leaked into the intelligence, essentially they can be used to tap cell-phone communication,” said Antti Kiuru.

 

According to operators, mobile phone users do not need to take action. It is still impossible to evaluate whether later SIM cards should be changed.

 

According to top-secret documents provided to The Intercept by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, the intelligence agencies targeted Gemalto, a multinational firm incorporated in the Netherlands that makes the chips used in mobile phones and next-generation credit cards.

 

In all, Gemalto produces some 2 billion SIM cards a year, said The Intercept report.